Update: Polygon reports that a "reporting party" told responding San Francisco police "an employee made a threat towards his employer using social media.” According to the police, the employee who allegedly made the threats works in an office outside of California.
Following the announcement of a controversial new policy just two days ago, which would see video game developers stung with a fee depending on how many times a game has been installed, Unity CEO John Riccitiello has cancelled a planned town hall meeting with employees after the company received what was described as a credible death threat. As an extra precaution, offices in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco were closed.
Jason Schreier of Bloomberg reports that Unity Technologies was "made aware of a potential threat to some of our offices" and that the company has "taken immediate and proactive measures to ensure the safety of our employees", according to a spokesperson. Unity Technologies is "fully cooperating with law enforcement.”
Schreier states that the threat or threats haven't yet been verified, only that Unity has closed multiple offices today and cancelled the planned town hall meeting. This is the video game industry, however, and sadly, it was likely only a matter of time until someone crossed the line. Regardless of how tone-deaf or disruptive a company's decision-making is, threatening the physical safety of its employees is entirely unacceptable.
What do you make of this latest development in the ongoing Unity saga? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 61
Yes wut unity is doing is vile but violence is not the answer
Well this is what society is becoming? Issuing death threats against somebody because they make a decision you dont like? Boycott the company by all means and stop supporting them but this kind of thing is just disturbing and whats even more disturbing is that its becoming more common place. These people wear this kind of attention like a badge of honor almost as if they think that its a really cool thing to do. These people should be classed as online terrorists and treated as such.
Gamers once again showing themselves to be among the most reasonable and levelheaded subcultures 👏🏻
Violence is NEVER the answer. Even the treat of it. It weakens not only your position, but those around you. And you can never really step back from that threat, it's out there and can't be taken back.
The only 'weapon' that should ever be used is an educated mind.
The game industry kinda had this handled already for once. Devs are threatening to pull games, others are switching engines, stocks were tanking. No need for people to resort to straight up violence.
An industry that promotes violence and killing in nearly every non-sports game and y’all act surprised something like this happens? The most popular games involve shooting/killing/brutality of other people in droves and for GTA in particular it purposely devalues human life and promotes violent behavior for entertainment. I mean has pushsquare said anything negative about the unreal gore in the upcoming Mortal Combat game? I bet y’all love it, but hey if a game is in the Harry Potter universe let’s get out the pitchforks and start canceling people lol. All it takes is one crazy person.
Before casting stones perhaps you should look at what messaging the industry is sending to its consumers and ask yourself if the next big game should be applauded or ashamed for how it treats the sanctity of human life. This is a symptom, not the disease itself…which is society’s continual decline in respect, love, and value for human life, and the entertainment industry, including the journalists who give high ratings for this stuff, is at the forefront of its decline for it’s “the story tellers who set the vision, agenda, and values of an entire generation that is to come” (Steve Jobs).
The Internet has created a mental illness that spreads amongst the most fragile people and makes them think they are justified to do things like this. It really does start with a little echo chamber telling you everyone else is greedy and evil and if you're pre--disposed to being a nutter you take it in and act on it. You have to be massive nerd to care AT ALL about how Unity wants to run itself, if they make bad decisions, they will fail. Why be so invested? Why be a shriveled little cockroach glued to your screen and then making death threats because of this? Insanity!
Removed - unconstructive
Death threats are obviously the result of a deranged mind (not least because it’s not an effective strategy for change, instead making Unity look like the victims). They need to be found, punished, and ideally given psychological help.
For their part, Unity would have already understood that there are deranged people in the world and, when you take away their ability to feed their children and keep a roof over their heads, they might just break. Perhaps don’t start indiscriminately destroying the lives of huge numbers of people. if not for moral reasons, then perhaps because some of them are always going to be baths!t crazy and it might put your employees, who had no say in this decision, into the firing line
Have to be honest I have my cynical head on here..
(of course IF it’s true it’s totally not right or excusable)…
But big company facing huge backlash now getting sympathy.
unity is a piece of crap. honestly, I haven't seen a single game on unity without any major problems. it is always either unbearable loading screens, or a cheap graphics running under 30 fps.
let them go down peacefully with their bad decisions, they deserve it.
Removed - flaming/arguing
Sorry, but I think that violence in video games is an interesting point to make here. We live in a world where sex gets you and 18 rating but cutting someone's head off is barely even a 12. Why is that? It's because we've all become numb to the idea of taking another man's life.
@Northern_munkey Society has been this way since as long as there has been society. Not excusing it, but it's nothing new.
Update: San Francisco police told Polygon that officers responded to Unity’s San Francisco office “regarding a threats incident.” A “reporting party” told police that “an employee made a threat towards his employer using social media.” The employee that made the threat works in an office outside of California, according to the police statement.
Johnny is -as per usual- trying to steer the focus away from his own abysmal business behaviours.
https://www.polygon.com/23873727/unity-credible-death-threat-offices-closed-pricing-change
@Dalejrfanfreak Is that you Keith Vaz?
Ironic when this new policy is threatening to kill the company and it's employees jobs.
@JaegerMeister Sounds about right, the classic play victim while you act as a villain strategy.
Threats of violence are always wrong and must be followed up with law enforcement in every case, however Unity's management needs to go for this horrendously terrible, greedy recent decision.
@Drago201 Your spelling is vile 😂 jk!
Removed - flaming/arguing; user is banned
@Zemo55 lolz 🤣 Grammer went out the window when I stopped using paper
@Drago201 I hear you bro! The lack of written words will be the end of civilisation 😂
@Zemo55 lolz yeah there so many shortened words and acronyms these days sometimes I just don't understand people 😅
@PsBoxSwitchOwner Not you're thinking like a Ritticiello. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it came later this was an inside job. Seen with my own eyes companies do far far worse when backed into a corner.
Removed - trolling/baiting
@LifeGirl Uhhhh. Gore immediately gets you a 17+ rating (M) in America. Beheading is considered Blood and Gore, and guess what? Sex in video games are given that same rating if it leaves just a bit to the imagination.
And there are games and movies so violent they are hit with an AO rating or NC17+, like the the Punisher video game and Terrifier respectively.
You're trying to make a point where there is no point to make, society has already got you got you covered bud.
@PixelDragon yeah it was an employee that made the threat, not one of those "bad gamers", that made the threat. I mean I guess it can be both, but surely that's sorely needed context.
The CEO of Unity, John Ricitello... Let's just say I wouldn't put it past him to take full advantage of the situation to curry a little sympathy.
@Constable_What yeah i get that but i'd like to think that as a species we would have evolved. Obviously not 🤪
@PixelDragon
you could well be right.
In the recent 'Harry & Megan' South Park episode, the bit that I thought hit the nail on the head was the branding agency helping all the clients, by listing each one as 'victim'.
Sadly it seems to be the state of the world where people who aren't really victims of anything at all want to gain attention and sympathy and this tactic seems to be the quickest way to do it.
Last quick example, a very famous BBC newsreader called Huw Edwards was recently outed as a major sex pest, funding teenage girls drug habits online to gain explicit photos as well as being inappropriate with young BBC staff as he believed he was effectively untouchable.
Once publicly named the narrative quickly changed to how his mental health had been affected by all the negative attention and we have to worry that he doesn't do anything silly before checking into a mysterious rehab and the story buried.
Modern life eh?
Much as gamers are absolutely not balanced well behaved individuals, and are often rediculously toxic, calling them out here is pointless.
This threat is from an employee, not a disgruntled gamer. Sadly, disgruntled employees doing something violent at their place of work seems to be long recurring theme in the US.
I hope unity folds after they exposed their hand. But I also hope everyone is safe.
Who cares.
Greedy sods get verbally attacked.
Maybe its because they crossed a line, and people would like there to be consequences for the rich & sheltered, this doesnt suprise me at all.
At some point, there have to be consequences. For everybody.
Unity taking the victim position here to obviously justify their almost villainous greed here is laughable to say the least.
It is transparent, it is inconsiderate, and understandably pisses people off.
They KNEW people were gonna take a hard stance and maybe take things to far (passion does that), and they knew they were going to be able to use that situation to come out the victim
Well done angry turds. Played right into tgeir hands.
@Dalejrfanfreak Isn’t this kind of the same argument back in the 90s that video games cause all violence? And it was by an employee, not a gamer.
@Summer235
Played hello kitty island the other day.
I now crave blood
Wow, their move was so bad that they death threated themselves xD
@Drago201 Good thing for the gaming community that it was actually employees at the company who sent the threats
@Titntin this, 1000%.
Motivations are likely all over the place, but this most likely has nothing to do with “gamers”, and more to do with an employee afraid the next move is “downsizing” or panicking over their stock options slowly becoming worthless. Employee morale is likely through the floor right now.
Not excusing the behavior, but sadly it’s not uncommon when companies do stupid things that will shake employee perceived stability.
@DutchDouchebag Hm I felt that way since I’ve played Kirby and the Forgotten Land…
Sigh this is the problem with internet drama and outrage. It can, and will spill over from genuine debate to real world madness.
As a big fan of indie games, what Unity has suggested is downright horrendous and will absolutely cause a huge financial burden on indie devs. It is right that this is decried and that people choose with their wallets to support their devs. Protest through legitimate means.
And the frustrating thing is that once that happens, the debate shifts and the threats become the story.
The only thing that need to die is that company and the employees all need to lose their jobs. Hopefully every developers switch engines from now on and bury that vile predatory company. There is so many alternative to Unity I don't see why anyone would keep using it.
Gamer blogs riling people up who aren't intelligent enough to exist in society is a real problem.
Gamers are bottom of the barrel in terms of emotional maturity and intelligence. Hopefully they catch who made the threats and put them away for a a decade or so.
The story states "an employee made a threat towards his employer using social media.” Why is everyone acting like this is a random crazy gamer online? This is uncalled for but making it seem like this is a random gamer who is mad at Unity is a lie. Don't use the general there goes another crazy gamer troup when it's an employee threatening his employer.
So you're claiming that you get a death threat...and the only source would be from a Game Developer...uh-huh. Ok. Sure. Let's go with that.
I guess thats one way to know you've made a poor business decision.
@invictus4000 so not getting death threats makes it a good business decision then? I guess we have a new test for basic life functions. death threats? Y/N?
Sony: How was out State of Play recieved?
Sony Salaryman: Well sir, no death threats yet.
SUCCESS
@Cashews it wasn’t “gamers”. It was an employee. The fact they know it was an employee means they already likely got the person, but are also likely worried there are more disgruntled employees to worry about.
@Northern_munkey We are super smart chimps at the end of the day. Sometimes, somedays, we just return to monkey. 😂
@IDreamofAugust well, the article was updated but at least as of the time Titntin’s posted, that update had been the opening paragraph so no clue why some continue to act as if it was gamers, unless people are only reading the article title and not even reading the first paragraph.
“This is the video game industry, however, and sadly, it was likely only a matter of time until someone crossed the line.”
Change ‘the video game industry’ to ‘America in 2023’ and it’s probably more accurate.
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/12/1193463117/violent-threats-against-public-officials-are-rising-heres-why
A lot of crazy people out there.take care of yourself and others.a lot of them are fake gansters.acting tough when they really not.word up son
@Kidfried No, a number of T rated games have beheadings. Movies too.
@Jaz007 Can you name any that show beheading? I know there are a few games where you can behead creatures...and I guess you're technically right, but that's not in the spirit of the discussion. lol
Now that I think about it, I can only think of Stormtroopers in Star Wars TFU, but it's not really graphic. There's no blood or faces, they're basically just robots.
Even if this wasn't a pathetic attempt to play victim I wouldn't have much sympathy for the guy who suggested introducing a $1 per reload microtransaction into battlefield.
@DarkTron dang that's still sad
So the same reaction pretty much any fruitloop has online when they disagree with someone/thing no matter what subject? Just another day on teh internets!
It's the internet, everybody got death threat, anybody can type "I'll kill you muehehe" in twitter, I don't think this is news anymore 😕
I remember so many youtuber/twich streamer getting death threat when they played/stream hogwart legacy, but I don't think I read that in pushsquare.
@Dalejrfanfreak I play the most violent games and I hate violence and injustice in real life. If you look at religion isn't that also full of violence and the people who are religious make death threats. And as others said it's not some random gamer who made the threats but someone who is employed.
@DutchDouchebag I'm not really surprised that a Dutchman says this. Being a Dutchman myself I see the normalisation of death threats towards politicians and others. The world is in sad state that you can excuse yourself of doing these because who cares. As a Dutch I can say "laat jezelf even nakijken" That means let yourself get checked preferably by a professional if you think this is normal.
@Flaming_Kaiser get off your high horse.
If you learned how to read properly than you noticed i said was that people reacting this way doesnt surprise me, and i ended my message with the conclusion that these angry sods play right into unity's hand.
Leer lezen voordat je neerbuigend ga doen.
And dont say sh** to me from behind the safety of your screen that you wouldnt dare say to my face. You'd like to act high and mighty but realistically youre no better than the people you verbally attack without consequences, like a coward.
And why, all because you lack reading comprehension? Dont make your single digit IQ other people's problem.
@Dalejrfanfreak I don't know what you're on about but value for human life has never been as high in human history as right now.
History has been filled with mass genocide, public executions and slaves fighting to the death for entertainment.
But ofcourse killing some pixels resembling a human being in a videogame is where the real problem lies...
@number1024 yes its even more disturbing now this has come to light but i would not have been surprised in the least if it was just random nobodys projecting their own self loathing on the world in general.
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